Comfort
by Silver Sparklze
Summary: A new resident of heaven recieves some comfort from a kind witch.


_Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her._

_"Come on, you can do better than that!" He yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room._

_The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest._

_The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock._

_Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dais._

_It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body cuved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch._

_Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place._

_Harry hear Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second..._

_But Sirius did not reappear._-Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix UK Edition 'Beyond The Veil' pages 710 and 711

----------------------------------------

Title: Comfort

Summary: A new resident of heaven recieves some comfort from a kind witch.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing. Not even the song I'm listening to. If you wanted to upset me, congratulations. ::sulks::

Author's Notes: I wish we'd gotten this kind of closure when they died.

----------------------------------------

A loud roar and a crash shattered the peacefulness of heaven. After a short pause, the birds began singing again, only to stop in surprise as rather imaginative curses were heard by all heaven's occupants.

"Well!" One witch huffed. "See if _I_ ever do the meet and greet again."

"What happened?" Tara Maclay asked timidly.

"Heaven's newest occupant...isn't too happy." The witch said sniffily. "You weren't either, but at least you expressed it in a more genteel manner." She smiled at the blonde fondly.

Tara blushed. "Well, since I know what he's feeling, perhaps I should go talk to him?" She suggested.

"A wonderful idea. If he gives you any cheek, don't hesitate to leave. He'd try the patience of an angel, that Sirius Black."

----------------------------------------

Tara knocked on the white door timidly. Really, everything here was white. Even the clothes. Yes, she loved it here, it was nice to rest, but she did want to go back home and be with Willow and Buffy and everyone. She missed them.

It was strange. Heaven for Tara was quite different from heaven for Buffy. Maybe it was because their ideals were different.

Buffy wanted to rest, to be at peace.

Tara wanted excitement. She'd come to crave it since living on the Hellmouth.

Slowly, Tara opened the door, and blinked in shock at the man inside. Oh. Goddess. He was cute. Nearly cute enough for her to revoke her lesbian status. Just like Spike had nearly been cute enough.

"What?" The man asked.

"Are you ok?" Tara had wanted to sound strong, purposeful. Instead she sounded like a meek little mouse, her voice no more than a whisper.

"I left him behind." Sirius said in a dull voice.

"Left who?" Tara moved into the room, sitting down beside the dark haired man. He looked so sad, her heart nearly broke.

"Harry. I left him alone and in danger. I missed out on most of his life and now I'll never get to enjoy the rest of it." Sirius began to cry.

Tara hugged him. "Want to talk about it?"

And so, well into the night, (part of Tara's ideal heaven was that there was night and times when you were sad, tired, angry, etc. It was part of being human for her, and just because she was dead didn't mean she wanted to stop being able to enjoy a good crying fit, temper tantrum, or the feeling of falling into bed after a long day), Tara and Sirius talked about the people they'd left behind.

Sirius learnt about Tara's family, about Willow, and about the Hellmouth, and Tara learnt all about Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Azkaban, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and, most importantly, Harry Potter.

And as the sun rose the next morning it found two of heaven's occupants asleep in each other's embrace, having comforted each other, drawing the poison from their souls.

End Ficlet


End file.
